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Friday, 16 September 2011

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 16th September, Challenge No.19, is 'Bouquet'.------

This week I thought I'd give my two romantic characters, Sanna and Tomas a rest. We should let them have some time to sort out their feelings.

In the meantime, here's a historical, romantic, short story with some previously unknown facts for 'Bouquet':

It was 1732 and young Carl was finally off on his first exploratory journey to Lapland. He was not yet 25 years old and rode on horseback alone. He discovered a very small pink flower deep in the moss-covered woods. This rare flowerLinnaea borealisor the Twinflower, with delicate funnel-like pedals, would later be an indicator of ancient untouched forest, and eventually be named after him, and become his emblem when he would be chosen for the house of nobility.

Carl sat looking at this tiny flower, when he suddenly observed a very small creature pick with nimble hands several blossoms. Carl was stunned. He was just about to first sketch and describe the plant and then preserve some samples in his plant-press. What had he just seen?

With his eyes, he followed the tiny figure of what appeared to be a little man with wings. The miniature man followed a path through bracken to what first looked like an ordinary stone, but upon closer inspection revealed itself to be a tiny hut with a wooden door.

With several of these rare blossoms in one hand as a bouquet, the tiny winged man knocked at the small wooden door. It opened and a beautiful little winged woman stepped out and greeted the little man, who gave her the bouquet of Linnaea-flowers. She happily received the bouquet and promptly put the flowers in a tiny vase, and then embraced the man. Their wings fluttered as they kissed and made them hover and inch or two above the ground.

Carl, the young scientist, was astonished. But he was worldly enough to realise that he could never write or even speak about what he had just witnessed. This was nothing for the scientific journals that would praise his Systema Naturae in years to come. So he watched breathlessly the tiny lovers, and tried to listen to what they said, before they disappeared into the hut under the bracken. Did he hear the words 'Thank you, darling'? Or was there an 'I love you, too!' ?

P.S.As I mentioned earlier, I decided not to write a story about Sanna and Tomas this week. This text is fictional, even if I am using facts about an historical person. I wanted to write a poem for this post, but after several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and wrote this whimsical account of some unknown facts about one of Sweden's most famous scientists. Carl Linnaeus was one of the few scientists who was also a poet. His journals are filled with observations written in a, shall I say, 'romantic' style, that no modern scientist would use today.

Hello Anna. Firstly, may I say thank you for posting every week. And every week you're getting better. The more we write it improves us. I hope you've also made use of the critiques coming your way.

Now I love to read something where I learn something new, so I adored this. It had a touch of magic interweaved with the historical facts. I loved the way you crafted it. It made a very faeri entry for 'bouquet'.

Anna 125 x 125

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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen. - Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)